


Drum Major Amity Blight

by kontraklarinette



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Marching Band, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Kisses, self indulgent since i don’t know anyone in the toh fandom whos a band kid, they’re sophomores here instead of freshmen, this is just for me:) and my too many feelings abt band
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26277211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kontraklarinette/pseuds/kontraklarinette
Summary: Amity, the best musician at Hexside High, has a goal. She also has a very cute girlfriend. Unfortunately, those things don’t always get along.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 4
Kudos: 100





	Drum Major Amity Blight

_...Thirty-one, thirty-two, and close! _

Amity’s feet snapped together, perfectly timed on the last beat of the song. She dropped her trumpet down so the gleaming brass bell was pointed at the ground, and she glanced up at the box above the stadium, awaiting the band director’s critique.

“Uhh, good run.” Mr. Bump’s voice crackled against the microphone and rang out around the stadium. “I think that’s good enough for tonight. Your diags are horrible but I doubt anyone will notice since no one watches halftime anyway. You guys can go pack up and get dinner now.”

Amity’s shoulders relaxed. So she  _ hadn’t  _ made any horrible mistakes. Good. 

Against the light of the hot September sun, she could make out the outline of the drum major’s podium. A figure stood atop it with a rigid posture and her hands clasped neatly in front of her like she was waiting to give a command, even though the entire band was now drifting to the sidelines. Amity found her footsteps turning towards the podium instead of where her case lay at the edge of the field. Dinner could wait a moment.

She stopped before the podium and rested one hand on the silver ladder, the other still tightly gripping her trumpet. “Em?”

“Mittens!” At the sound of her sister’s voice, Emira clambered off the podium and flashed a grin at Amity. “Hey, you guys sound great today. Especially your solo in the second song! Wowza!”

Amity flushed. “I hope I do okay tonight.”

“You’ll do  _ wonderfully.” _

“I guess. As long as I can keep my composure during the high C so that it doesn’t go flat.”

“Ha ha!” Emira laughed. “Composure? Get it? Music joke?” When Amity didn’t respond, her voice fell. “I’m hilarious.”

“Yeah, um-” Amity paused for a moment and fumbled for the words she was looking for.  _ I need your advice… no, that’s not it. I’m not supposed to need anyone’s advice. I need your help? No, that’s even worse. How do I make sure I stay just as important and in-charge as you until I graduate? No, that’s not right either! _ “You look really cool up there,” she decided on awkwardly. “Very, um- leaderly.”

Em narrowed her eyes. “You’ve got your eye on my spot, don’t you?” Ruffling Amity’s teal hair, she barked a good-natured laugh. “Should’ve known. You’re a Blight, after all. Drum Major Amity Blight… it’s got a ring to it.”

Amity batted her sister’s hand off her head. “I don’t want to be drum major just because of Mom and Dad.”

“You want to be in charge of a bunch of rowdy high schoolers?”

Amity nodded. “I guess… it would just be like a culmination of everything I’ve been working for since middle school. I mean… I was the Best Three-Year Band Member in eighth grade. Best Jazz Soloist last year. I’ve soloed at state twice…” As she racked her brain of all her accomplishments, a fresh worry sprang to mind. “I’ve always been the best. I should be a shoe-in. But lately, I feel like I’ve just been… distracted.”

“It’s okay,” Em said, “you can say Luz.”

“It’s not just Luz,” Amity muttered, “but I guess she’s part of it.”

“You need to get all romantic energy out. Take Luz out to a candlelight dinner. Tell her you love her. Give her a kiss, or three, or five. Then maybe you won’t be thinking about her and missing your entrance instead of playing.”

“That has only happened  _ twice.” _

“Yeah, but it’s only a matter of time until you screw up so royally Bump kicks you out of your first trumpet spot in jazz band.” As Amity felt her chest flood with horror, Em quickly amended herself. “I mean, I don’t think it would be that drastic. Maybe you’ll just be… kept out of the next game.”

“Hopefully I won’t be kicked out of anything unless I… break something, or… something,” Amity muttered.

Em blinked. “Um… remember when you were so distracted watching Luz you crashed into a wall and bent your bell backwards?” 

“That was  _ before  _ we started dating! It doesn’t count!”

Em nudged her sister playfully. “Hey, speak of the devil. I think someone wants you for dinner.”

Amity spun around and felt blood rush to her cheeks as she spotted Luz dashing across the sideline to get to her, yelling “Amity!” every few seconds, although she was still a few yard lines away. “Amity, hey!”

_Why does she have to be so cute in those stupid gym shorts and that stupid_ _T-shirt?_ “Hey,” Amity’s voice cracked as she waved back.

“Amityyy!” Luz stopped in front of Amity and started tapping her foot impatiently on the brightly-colored turf. “I was wondering where you were. I walked all the way to the school and back but you weren’t in the cafeteria!”

“Your cute face is so close to mine,” Amity said hoarsely. “I think I feel dizzy.”

“Silly.” Luz leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on Amity’s lips, her hand drifting up to cup Amity’s cheek. Amity could feel Em’s smirk boring into her back. “Come have dinner with me. You must be starving!”

“I guess maybe I should.”

Luz swung her hopeful gaze to Em. “Are you coming too?”

Em shook her head. “Nah. I’ve got  _ important drum major business  _ to take care of. Don’t have too much fun without me.” She spared Amity a wink. “See you two before pregame.”

“Okay!” Luz had grabbed Amity’s hand and was already dragging her girlfriend back across the field. “See you soon!” she yelled over her shoulder. 

Amity half stumbled after her, wishing with every bone in her body for the fire that ignited every nerve to quell.

~

“I hate these stupid sandwiches,” Luz grumbled.

Amity was holding back laughter as Luz repeatedly stabbed her ham-and-mayo concoction with her fork. It barely resembled a sandwich anymore, not that it really ever had. It had come from the school cafeteria and Amity would bet good money that none of the food Hexside High served was one hundred percent edible.

“At least you  _ can  _ eat it.”

“And at least  _ you _ can drink the milk!” Luz complained, leaning down to take another sip from her small cardboard carton.

Amity sighed. “You’re going to get yourself killed one of these days.”

“Murdered by milk. A noble way to die. Hey, what do you say we go out for ice cream after the game?”

“I’m going to spend the entire night worrying that you’re going to keel over and die in the middle of halftime as it is.”

“Is that a no?”

“Absolutely, Noceda.” Amity took a bite of her own sandwich, trying to ignore the cardboard-esque taste on her tongue. “But… if you want to come over to my house after the game, I wouldn’t complain. I know there’s a new season of  _ Azura: The Series _ just begging to be binged.”

Luz shrugged. “Hey, I love Azura as much as the next guy, but you’re not gonna have a fun time convincing me to actually watch it instead of just kissing you the whole time.”

Amity thanked the stars that she was getting used to Luz constantly saying cute things like that that made her internally combust, because she was able to fight off her blush just enough to respond. “Well, I… I wouldn’t say no to that either,” she stammered. Maybe it wasn’t completely coherent, but it worked. If nothing else, it was a step in the right direction.

“It’s a date, then!”

_ Date. _ Amity was still getting used to that word. She had been dating the most beautiful girl in the world since August 8th of last year (391 whole days!) and she still had so much trouble wrapping her head around the concept. A simple girl like her, with the privilege of being Luz Noceda’s girlfriend? She never would have believed it if she hadn’t lived it herself. Sure, maybe she and Luz had gotten off to a rocky start with the whole pretending-to-be-a-human-anatomy-project debacle, but that was all in the past, and now they couldn’t be closer. She pictured herself, five or so hours in the future, wrapped in Luz’s arms, with her head resting gently on Luz’s chest... 

Hours seemed to pass in Amity’s daydream before Luz started waving her hand in Amity’s face, jerking her back to the present. Amity snapped to attention, lifting her head from where she’d been resting it on her crossed arms. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

The corners of Luz’s mouth lifted into a smile. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?”

“Don't look at me like that,” Amity grumbled. “I oughta just kiss your dumb face right now.”

“Do it, I dare you!”

“Umm.” Amity hesitated. Her proximity to Luz was making her face heat up again, and she forced herself to tear her eyes away from Luz’s hopeful gaze. Instead she pulled her phone out of her pocket and quickly switched it on. “Oh, would you look at that. Six already. I’d better go get my instrument around… and you know how long it takes to button up that stupid coat.”

Luz glanced around the cafeteria. “Nobody’s even leaving dinner yet.”

“Okay, fine.” Amity let out a heavy breath. “You’re just… making me crazy. Again.”

“Good crazy or bad crazy?”

“Best crazy. Like I’m about to explode, but like… in a good way?” Amity groaned and covered her face with her hands. “I’m so bad at flirting.”

“Well,” Luz said, smooth as ever, “I can do enough for the both of us.”

“Maybe you should,” sighed Amity.   
“Hey!” Luz’s face lit up with an idea. “Tonight’s our first game! After we perform we should take a bunch of cute pictures in our uniforms together and we’ll be so cute and oh my goodness that would make for one heck of an Instagram post. Right? Right?”

“Don’t you still have the pictures from last year?”

“Yeah, but I’m not wearing the uniform in those. That was  _ way _ before I joined the coolest marching band in the school. Now I get to wear the giant hat with the spunky plume and everything!”

Amity couldn’t suppress a laugh at the mental image of Luz dressed to the nines in the Wailing Banshees Militia Band uniform.

Luz pretended to look offended at Amity’s snickering. “What?”

“It’s just-” Amity wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye. “You in that stupid hat. You’ll be so cute I might die when you come out of the dressing room.”

“Hey!” Luz laughed. “The hat is  _ not  _ stupid. I happen to find it incredibly snazzy.”

“Only on you.”

Now it was Luz’s turn to blush. She cast an embarrassed glance at the ground. “No way,” she mumbled.

Amity spotted a few of the kids at the tables around theirs begin to gather their trash and leave. “As much as I’d like to stay here and keep telling you how cute you are, we’d better go. A minute late to tuning and I might risk that future drum major spot!”

Luz rolled her eyes. “Ami. We’re only sophomores. Sometimes you go way too crazy over that whole drum major thing. You’ve got plenty of time to impress Bump! Just relax and enjoy the game tonight, huh?”

Amity let her shoulders droop. “I guess,” she sighed. “But Lillith says I need to be working as hard as I can, every single day, because the little things add up fast.”

Luz shrugged. “Well,  _ my  _ private teacher says to just go with the flow! To enjoy myself! She  _ was _ the star sax player, after all.”

“Well,  _ mine  _ was section leader,” Amity snorted. She gave Luz a good-natured nudge in the side. “I think we can both agree that our teachers are amazing. But we really should go now.” More kids were leaving the cafeteria by the moment. “We can argue later.” She saw Boscha, another trumpet and Amity’s biggest rival, followed closely by Willow, the amiable clarinetist who was also Luz’s best friend. No way Amity would let Boscha get into uniform before she could.

“Aww, but I’d  _ never _ argue with you, Amity!” exclaimed Luz, scooting a bit closer to Amity and slinging her arm around her girlfriend’s shoulder.

Amity pushed Luz away. “There’ll be time for cuddling later, too.”

Luz stuck her bottom lip out. “Fine.”

The two girls gathered their things and departed out the cafeteria doors towards the band room. All the uniform racks were set up outside the band room and arranged by name- and, much to her disappointment, Amity remembered that  _ Blight  _ and  _ Noceda _ were very far apart from each other in the alphabet. Amity had been fully prepared to help Luz with her stupid frilly neck thing and her stupid velcro sash and the stupid adjustable strap on the stupid giant hat that was incredibly hard to reach once you had the stupid stiff sleeves on. Okay, maybe the band uniform wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but boy did Amity feel powerful wearing it. She hoped Luz would feel powerful too, or at least cute, since there were no doubts that’s what she’d be.

Once Amity had helped Luz find the  _ N-P  _ rack, she set out to find her own. Once she remembered that the zipper on the pants did indeed go in the front, she assembled the rest of her uniform in record time, grabbed her hat from the hat rack, and slipped into the band room to put her trumpet together.

Just as she was about to reach into her locker and grab her flip folder- the finishing touch to her Friday night ensemble- she felt a tap on her shoulder. “Is this right?”

Amity turned and found herself face-to-face with quite possibly the most adorable version of Luz she’d ever seen. Luz wore a lopsided grin on her face and her unruly dark hair stuck out from underneath her hat in every direction. She gripped her saxophone haphazardly. The buttons on her jacket were buttoned crookedly, and her sash was resting on her left leg, not her right, but despite what a disastrous job Luz had done, Amity found herself holding back a laugh. It was Luz’s first time trying to wear this thing, after all. Amity was sure she’d made the same mistake last year when she’d been a new marcher too.

Luz frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“Here,” Amity giggled. “Let me help you.”

“I look ridiculous, don’t I?” Luz sighed as Amity unbuttoned and rebuttoned her coat for her. “I knew I wouldn’t get it right.”

“You did fine,” Amity insisted. “Besides, it’s cute. If not very… correct.”

Luz glanced up at the brim of her hat. “This thing doesn’t feel very right either.”

“Because it’s not.” Amity finished Luz’s buttons, quickly readjusted Luz’s sash, and undid the hat’s strap. “You have to gather all your hair up into it, like this.” She set Luz’s hat down next to her own and gathered Luz’s hair up in one hand before replacing the hat. “Your hair’s not long enough for a ponytail, but there, that's much better.”

Luz’s hand darted up to touch the soft white plume on top of the hat. A soft grin fell over her features that nearly made Amity melt. “Thanks! That feels a lot better.”

“No problem.” Amity mumbled. A small corner of her brain was still getting ready to blow up over how adorable Luz looked. She wasn’t even sure she’d make it to halftime at this rate.  _ I might fall over in the middle of the field from gay before the game even starts,  _ she thought.

Amity grabbed her trumpet just as the band room’s intercom sounded. “That’s six, guys,” announced the voice of Mr. Bump. “Tuning starts outside now. Pregame in thirty minutes.”

Luz squealed. “That’s our cue!” She gave a small bounce on the heels of her black dress shoes. “This is so cool. My first game. My first game with  _ you! _ We’re going to be so awesome. Oh my gosh. Hey, I’d promised Willow I’d meet her before tuning, so. I’ll see you in a bit!” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Amity’s forehead. “I love you!” she added before darting off to join Willow and the other clarinets, her golden saxophone held tightly to her chest.

Everything around Amity slowed.  _ Luz loves me. _ The thought didn’t seem quite real, so she repeated it out loud. “Luz loves me.”

That didn’t seem quite real either.

_ Luz loves me, and I love Luz. _

_ I should probably tell her. _

“Luz!” she yelled. “Wait!” But she was too late- like storm clouds, the crowd of band kids pushing towards the door converged in front of her, and suddenly she couldn’t see which way Luz had gone. Trumpet in hand, she pushed on anyway, her flip folder lying forgotten in her locker.

~

Amity didn’t find Luz before the pregame. She registered that she’d forgotten her folder in her locker, but she pushed the thought away. She’d memorized all her music. She’d be fine. What mattered now was finding Luz- though through some unfortunate stroke of bad luck, she was shoved after pregame into a section of the bleachers with the other trumpets- as far away from the woodwinds as possible. As halftime ticked closer, Amity realized that getting to Luz before the game ended would be nearly impossible. It wasn’t until she stood on the front sidelines at two minutes until halftime that she realized what a mistake she’d made.

She hadn’t  _ wanted  _ a dot next to Boscha. In fact. Boscha was the  _ last  _ person she’d ever wanted a dot next to. Before band camp started she’d briefly tried to convince Luz to switch to trumpet in hopes of being dot neighbors with her instead, but Luz had been playing the saxophone since sixth grade, so she had politely refused. Amity had understood and did her best to support her girlfriend from a few sections over. But Boscha had stayed on trumpet, Boscha had landed the T-9 dot next to Amity’s T-8, and now Boscha was crowing to Amity about how  _ horribly  _ she thought Amity would do during her big solo in the final number. 

“You’ve only had the music for the solo for like, a week,” Boscha chided. “I’m amazed you memorized it so fast.”

“Of course I can do it,” Amity snapped. “I-” Wait. Memorized? She glanced at the empty lyre clipped to her trumpet.

_ I left my music in my locker. _

Fear flooded her body. 

_ How could I have forgotten something like that? _

Of course, she knew the answer, not that she could ever admit that to Boscha. Luz. She’d been distracted by Luz. Luz had told Amity she loved her, and then- and then Amity had run away, completely forgetting that she had a huge solo that she had barely sightread, let alone memorized.

“I need to see Em,” she hissed to herself. Hastily she ducked through the crowd, disrupting the organized lines and rows of band kids waiting to march, and she ignored Boscha’s sarcastic “Break a leg!” with a little difficulty.

“Em!” she gasped when she skidded to a halt at the podium. “I- I- I’m  _ doomed-” _

“Woah, spit it out.” Em, who was sitting criss-cross on the drum major’s podium, leaned over to curiously eye her little sister. “What’s got you all worked up? You’re never this nervous before games.”

Amity turned her wide amber eyes on Em. “I left my music in the band room!”

“So?” Em grinned. “I’m sure you’ve got it memorized. You memorize music faster than anyone I know.”

“But my solo! I don't know my solo, and-” A lump appeared in Amity’s throat, and she had to fight to keep it down.  _ Blights don’t cry. _ “If I mess up my solo, I’ll never be the drum major like you! I won’t be the best anymore! I’ll have made one dumb mistake too many, and- and I can say goodbye to my first trumpet spot in jazz band!”

“Hey. Hey.” Em slipped off the podium and wrapped Amity in a hug. “Bump’s not gonna demote you because you forgot your music.”

“But Lillith said-”

“Don’t worry about what Lillith said. She may have been the best musician here, but it's not like she never made a single mistake.”

Amity sniffled. “But what if-”

“Shh.” Em rested her chin on top of Amity’s head until Amity’s quiet crying had ceased. “There’s no use getting worked up over spilled elixir. You don’t have time to go back and get your music, but you do have time to march out there and show the whole band who’s boss. Play from memory the best you can, and even if it’s not the best, it means you’ll wow everyone even more at the next game in two weeks, right?”

“I guess so.”

“Okay, you’ve got thirty seconds.” Em pulled back and pointed Amity in the direction of the rest of the trumpet section. “You’ve got this, Mittens. I believe in you.”

“Thanks, Em,” Amity croaked. She straightened her posture. Maybe her sister was right. Maybe she  _ would _ be amazing.

Her confidence renewed, she joined the rest of her band just as Emira’s attention whistle sounded.

~

“What was  _ that?”  _

Amity cowered against the chainlink fence that separated the band’s section of bleachers from the field. “I’m sorry.”

Bump’s tone was scalding. “I expect more out of my top trumpet player. Amity, you’re better than that. What happened? A middle schooler could have done that better than you!”

“I left my music in the band room.”

“Why on earth would you forget your music?”

To think that Amity had stopped onto the field with as much confidence as she had. To think that she’d ever believed she could play without music. All she’d managed to do was squawk out a few barely-in-tune notes while the audience looked on, boring into her with their iron stares… she shivered. This had gone so much worse than she’d planned. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.

Bump shook his head and heaved a sigh. “It’s not like you, Amity.”

”I’ll do better next time.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Amity opened her mouth to try and defend herself again, but another voice cut through their confrontation. The sound of it rocked Amity to her very core.  _ No,  _ she wanted to scream,  _ get out of here, _ but Luz was already descending the bleachers towards her, a cold, determined look in her chocolate eyes.

“Don’t get mad at her. It’s my fault.”

Luz leaped down from the last metal step with a  _ thud,  _ and Bump turned towards her. “Luz?” he asked, a question in his voice.

“When we were in the band room I said something to Amity that I shouldn’t have.” Luz ducked her head, and Amity found it impossible to meet her gaze and plead to her silently,  _ No! You didn’t do anything wrong!  _ “I freaked her out and she must have been too distracted to remember to grab her folder. I’m sorry. Blame me for what happened with her solo.”

“Luz-“ Amity began.

Luz shook her head. “It’s okay, Amity. I know it must have been shocking to hear me say that-“

“Luz, you-“

“I should have thought more about my words.”

“Luz, stop.” Amity breezed past Bump and placed her hands squarely on Luz’s shoulders. Memories of their first homecoming last fall burst through her- the homecoming was where she’d realized she was truly, irreversibly in love with Luz. That night they’d danced just like this, this close, this intimately. She’d confessed her feelings for Luz soon after, and the rest was history. 

But tonight wasn’t for dancing.

“Luz, you can’t let yourself take the blame,” Amity insisted. “This isn’t your fault.”

“But I said-“

“And I’m the one who left my stupid music in my locker. Not you, me. So if this mistake is going to cost me anything-“ She turned to address Bump- “if you think I’m not cut out to be section leader or drum major or whatever, that’s fine. But you can’t blame Luz for  _ my  _ awful solo.”

Surprise dawned on Bump’s face. “It really isn’t that big a deal.”

“What?” Amity and Luz shouted at the same time.

“I can’t say quite yet whether or not you’re cut out for a position of power,” Bump admitted. “I’m more focused on next year’s senior class than yours. But you needn’t worry. Your private lesson teachers- Eda and Lilith- made mistakes all the time.”

Amity could almost hear a smug  _ told you  _ from Em in her mind. “So… you’re not mad?” she asked tentatively.

“You’re hardly the worst student I’ve had.”

“So there’s still a chance-“

“I think maybe we should get back to the game,” Luz laughed. She linked her arm with Amity’s. “I bet there are some nachos just calling my name over at the concession stand. What do you say?”

“As long as you don’t eat the cheese!” teased Amity.

Luz rolled her eyes and tugged Amity along with her. Once they were out of earshot of their band director, Luz pulled Amity underneath the bleachers into a dark corner where they wouldn’t be seen. Amity thought Luz seemed nervous, so she took Luz’s hand as soon as the other girl came to a stop.

“Amity, I just wanted to say-“ Luz began.

Amity didn’t want to hear Luz’s apology, so she shut her girlfriend up with a gentle kiss.

“You said exactly the right thing,” Amity reassured Luz when she pulled back.

Luz donned a started expression. “What?”

“You idiot,” Amity giggled. She rested her forehead against Luz’s and held the other girl’s hand close to her chest. The nervousness in Luz’s eyes faded, and she leaned into the touch.

Amity’s voice faded to a whisper as she gave Luz’s hand a gentle squeeze.

“I love you too.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> top 3 places i worked on this fic  
> 3\. during jazz band class after my weak  
> nerd arms (somehow) helped drag the band’s bleachers to the field  
> 2\. marching band dinner (but unlike luz and amity, i was sitting very much alone)  
> 1\. in the middle of the game, when i was supposed to be dancing to drumline cadences but was more invested in ~the gay~


End file.
